Data from: Molecular footprints of the Holocene retreat of dwarf birch in Britain ...

• Main Authors: Wang, Nian, Borrell, James S., Bodles, William J. A., Kuttapitiya, Ana, Nicholes, Richard A., Buggs, Richard J. A., Kuttapitiya, Anasuya, Nichols, Richard A.
• Format: Dataset
• Language: English
• Published: Dryad 2014
• Subjects: Betula nana; Betula pubescens; ecological-niche modelling; Betula pendula; Holocene; Dwarf birch
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.5061/dryad.mt5sj; https://datadryad.org/stash/dataset/doi:10.5061/dryad.mt5sj

Past reproductive interactions among incompletely isolated species may leave behind a trail of introgressed alleles, shedding light on historical range movements. Betula pubescens is a widespread native tetraploid tree species in Britain, occupying habitats intermediate to those of its native diploid relatives, B. pendula and B. nana. Genotyping 1134 trees from the three species at 12 microsatellite loci we found evidence of introgression from both diploid species into B. pubescens, despite the ploidy difference. Surprisingly, introgression from B. nana, a dwarf species whose present range is highly restricted in northern, high-altitude peat bogs, was greater than introgression from B. pendula, which is morphologically similar to B. pubescens and has a substantially overlapping range. A cline of introgression from B. nana was found extending into B. pubescens populations far to the south of the current B. nana range. We suggest that this genetic pattern is a footprint of a historical decline and/or ... : Microsatellite genotype dataMicrosatellite genotype datamicrosatellite data.xlsxR scriptsR scripts used in data analyses and making of figures ...